In Junk Style Melanie Molesworth would have us master, over the course of one exquisitely photographed book, the hundreds-of-years-in-the-making French art of rubbish chic. "A house filled with junk furniture," she confidently predicts, "Will have a wonderfully timeless feel". Still, one is left to wonder--is timelessness so wonderful? Is it really so liberating "to forget how much or how little something costs"? Buy all your clothes at Gap and while you'll earn no points for originality or thrift, at least you won't get laughed off the number 12 bus. Junk Style is the interior's equivalent of Vivienne Westwood extolling the sartorial advantages of bondage rubber and bin-bags; only for the brave.

Then again, this is Junk Style's value: It is a window on a real lifestyle, requiring real skill, a good eye, and resilience enough to admit mistakes. "It's a fine balance between being the first to pick a bargain and being the fool who goes home to live with a dud." This is an unworthy sentiment: Surely the whole point of junk style--championed throughout this book and captured in every one of Tom Leighton's covetable fetishistic photographs--is that any mistakes, being cheap, can be rectified, and one's personal taste--no longer in thrall to designer hype and designer prices--is free to develop and grow.

Feel the fear and raid the boot-sale anyway. --Simon Ings

Review:

Carbooters and charity shop frequenters already know junk style. That shabby elegance that can so become someone else's outcasts. 50s aluminium cookware with its gentle battering has a homely, lived-in look. A chair kicked by many feet has a worn patina unfound on modern pieces. Curtains and tablecloths with their gentle, frayed appearance. The range of items that comprise junk style is unending. Whatever appeals to you can be turned into an unusual addition for your home. So what if it's chipped, scratched or slightly rusty? This is the appeal and stylist Melanie Molesworth, in conjunction with photographer Tom Leighton, shows you all the tricks of the trade to use and display your finds to perfection. Every room, inside and out, can provide homes for these old items and often the most mundane of articles can be transformed into something extra special with a little guidance. Once you've read this no skip or antique market will be safe - you'll find all sorts of individual treasures out there which Melanie will tell you how to make the most of. - Lucy Watson